


Weeping Angel

by keinekatze132



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005), The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: Gen, Outsiders POV, Weeping Angels - Freeform, in the style of season one
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-18
Updated: 2021-03-18
Packaged: 2021-03-27 10:00:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,414
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30121047
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/keinekatze132/pseuds/keinekatze132
Summary: Statement about a moving angel statue and a man in a blue box.
Relationships: Tenth Doctor & Donna Noble
Comments: 2
Kudos: 5





	Weeping Angel

**Author's Note:**

> Listening to the latest episodes of tma made me want to write another one of these. So here you go!

Statement of Mary Barber, regarding an encounter in a chapel in Spain. Original statement given August the 12th, 2011. Audio recording by Jonathan Sims, Head Archivist of the Magnus Institute, London.

Statement begins.

It was supposed to be a normal trip to Spain with my husband. We had planned to stay with my in-laws for the weekend. After that we were going to travel south and spend a few days at the beach. My sister was watching the kids back in England and god knows we really needed some vacation.

I wasn’t keen on staying with my husband’s family. Don’t get me wrong. They are wonderful people, but my Spanish is not as good as it used to be, and I know that my Mother-in-law still blames me for my husband’s decision to stay in England after graduating from university. Anyway, after spending a day with stuttering small talk in Spanish and pretending to laugh about anecdotes I barely understood I decided I had had enough. 

My in-laws live in the countryside so there isn’t much else you can do than hiking, but I didn’t mind as I regularly go hiking with my friends back in England. So, I planned a route using a map I found with my phone on the internet. When I announced my plans to the family nobody had any objections, so I started my trip early in the morning the next day.

The weather was really nice. It was going to be a sunny day, but it wasn’t too hot that early in the morning. I knew I would have to take a break around noon though as the Spanish sun was a little much for a British lady like me. Anyway, I was in a great mood as I left my in-law’s house behind.

After walking for about twenty minutes, I had already left any sign of civilization behind. I was now on a small path that led up a slight hill. It was a nice route, but it didn’t seem to be used that much. I supposed that part of Spain was yet spared from tourism. Somehow it made the entire thing more exciting for me. Being a mother of two, feeling like I’m the only person in the world is a rare luxury.

I walked for a few more hours leaving the hill behind and reaching a light forest. I took a short break on a tree stump and read a few pages in a book I had brought. Being that far out my phone had no signal but I used it to take a few pictures to show my husband later.

I continued my path shortly after, but it was starting to get really hot already. I was glad I had had the mind to bring a hat even though I usually believe only old people need those when hiking. The trees around me were not tall enough to spend enough shadow from the heat and I started to keep an eye out for a place to take a longer break at.

I was already about to give up and take another break on a tree stump or something when I suddenly found myself standing in front of a steep slope. It hadn’t seen it on my map when I had planned my route. For a moment I panicked fearing I had gotten lost. I walked a little closer to the slope trying to see if the path continued below me. To my surprise I saw the ruins of a small building in front of me. It was made out of stone and part of the roof had collapsed. Taking a closer look, I realized I was looking at an old chapel.

After a bit of hesitation, I decided to climb down. Now that I had calmed a little the slope didn’t look too dangerous, and the chapel had awoken my curiosity. After all, it would be way more bearable to check my map again in the shadows of the stone walls. 

As I got closer, I realized that I was walking towards the backside of the chapel. The building was tiny, about the size of a normal room. This wasn’t my first visit to Spain and I had seen many similar chapels so I was not surprised even though the ones I had seen hadn’t been abandoned. I walked around the chapel and found myself on the remains of a stone path that led towards the door. 

There was a live size Angel statue next to the door that had its face buried in its hands, giving it the appearance, to be crying. Something about it unsettled me right away and I realized I might be walking over a graveyard. Later I noticed that I had never seen a statue like this in front of any other tiny chapel. I starred at it longer than necessary before I turned around and carefully entered the chapel. 

The inside looked even worse than the outside. The collapsed roof made it impossible to walk further than a few steps inside. The decorations were withered, and I could barely tell what the paintings once had portrayed. The most haunting part was the cross that had fallen over. A big part of it was missing giving the body of Christ the appearance to be missing an arm. Feeling somehow disturbed I turned to leave.

Outside I took a deep breath of fresh air and supported myself against the cold wall of the chapel. There was a feeling of growing panic inside me as I had probably gotten myself lost in a country I barely knew, and my only point of orientation was the creepy ruin of a chapel. I was trying to get my eyes to focus on something and subconsciously started staring at the Angel statue. Something about it bothered me though. The confusion numbed my panic a little so I could regain my focus. Then I noticed it. The statue had changed.

When I had first seen the statue, its eyes had been completely covered by its hands. I was completely sure about that. Now its fingers were spread giving it the appearance of a child that was cheating at hide-and-seek. I subconsciously took a few steps towards it. Doing so, I accidentally kicked against a small rock. It made a loud noise as it skittered away, and I turned my head to look at it for a moment.

When I looked back up, I screamed. The Angel had lowered its hands revealing its too big mouth. It almost looked like it was smiling at me, revealing long and pointy teeth. At that point I was convinced that I was losing it. I mean, statues don’t move. I know that. I closed my eyes and tried to get it back together when I suddenly heard a screeching noise and the sound of engines.

I opened my eyes again. The Angel’s hands were inches in front of my face. Its fingers were looking more like claws at this point. I took a step back and almost tripped. 

“Keep looking at the Angel” a male voice called.

I had been sure I had been alone, so I instinctively wanted to search for the source of the voice. I was about to turn when the voice called again.

“Don’t look away!”

I starred at the Angel not sure what to do. Its face was an angry grimace, and a long tongue was showing between its teeth. 

“I’ll be right back. Just promise me one thing: Don’t blink!” the man said.

I was intimidated and worried about my own sanity, so I was willing to follow about any instructions of someone who sounded convinced enough. I had a hard time not blinking. My eyes were starting to burn and I’m still not sure if they were watering or if I was simply crying. To this day, whenever I close my eyes, I see the Angels face.

There was some sort of tumult behind me. It sounded like two people were fighting but it was muffled like it was coming from another room.

“I’m telling you to stay inside” the man from earlier said.

“No I won’t!” I heard a female voice say. “You promised to take me to the beach and now you boss me around instead?” she asked.

I wanted to call out and tell her to stay away but to be honest I was afraid they would actually abandon me there with the angry Angel.

“Listen, Donna, I don’t have time for this right now” the man said. He sounded closer now. I heard the sound of a door closing and then he was standing right beside me.

I didn’t dare to look at him and my vision had become blurry at that point. The man was carrying something that he was holding in front of the Angels face. 

“You can blink now” he said in a calm voice.

I sighed in relieve and rubbed my burning eyes. When I opened them again, I could see the man for the first time. He looked like he was a little younger than me and was dressed in a way that struck me as weird. He was wearing a suit under a long non-formal coat. Later I also noticed that he was wearing sneakers with it. I guess I should not judge his look too hard though. After all, he had saved me from the Angel.

He was holding up a mirror in front of the Angels face. “They can’t move as long as someone looks at them” he explained. “Including their own reflection”.

It didn’t make more sense than anything else about the situation, so I accepted it as an explanation. A woman walked up to us. She was wearing a swimsuit and had a towel wrapped around her hips. I assumed it was Donna. 

“What do we do with it, Doctor?” she asked.

The man referred to as Doctor shrugged. “Right now I’m open for ideas” he admitted.

“Glue it to its hand” Donna suggested.

“What?” the Doctor asked.

“The mirror. Glue it to its hand” she repeated. “It is holding its arm out perfectly already”.

“Donna you’re a genius” he said. “Hold this for a second” he said addressed at me making a nodding movement towards the mirror.

Carefully I took the mirror from him. My hands were shaking so badly that I was afraid I was going to drop it but somehow, I managed to hold on. The doctor started searching his pockets until he finally found a half empty tube of glue.

“Do you always bring glue to the beach?” Donna asked.

“Just in case” the Doctor said as he took the mirror from me.

I wanted to tell Donna that we were hours away from the nearest beach but somehow I felt like that didn’t really matter to these people. The doctor pulled some sort of metal tool from another pocket and pointed it at the Mirror. Might have been UV technology or whatever. Anyway, it made a sound and the glue dried instantly.

The Doctor let go of the mirror and took a step back. “Voila” he said.

“That’s it?” I asked. The statue still had that horrible expression on its face, but the mirror added some sort of hysteric hilarity to it. 

“Not quite yet” the doctor said. “How did you stumble across this place?” he asked.

“I was hiking” I replied weakly.

“And you used a map, right?” he asked.

I nodded. “Of course. I found it on the internet”.

The Doctor smiled. “That’s great. Easy to delete” he said.

Donna tapped her foot impatiently. “So are we still going to the beach or not?” she asked.

“You think a lousy weeping Angel is going to stop us?” the Doctor asked and made a face at Donna.

Donna beamed. She turned towards me. “Glad we could help” she said.

“Yeah, thank you” I said, still confused. 

Donna took the Doctors arm and the two started walking along the stone path towards the back of the chapel like they were out on an evening stroll. The doctor turned one last time and said “Please don’t mess with the Angel” before they left my field of view.

Still in a state of confusion I decided to run after them. Right before I turned around the corner, I heard the horrible screeching noise from earlier again. After that there was no sign of the two of them to be seen. 

I dropped against the stone wall feeling really weak all of sudden. The Angel hadn’t changed at all so at least I knew I hadn’t been imagining things. I tried to rest a little, but the stone figure’s presence was incredibly unsettling. A part of me was worried that the Doctor had missed something, and the Statue could come back to life at any moment.

In the end, I walked back the way I had come. I barely remember anything from the way back, but I don’t think I took a single break. I remember seeing my in-law’s front door and later I was told I had collapsed there right after ringing the bell. My husband assumed I had had a sunstroke and I never had the heart to tell him what had really happened. I think to a certain degree I’m still afraid he would think I was crazy.

Statement ends.

Well, there is a lot going on in this statement. For the moving Angel statue, I’m keen to believe that it was the result of a Christian woman’s lively imagination paired with a sunstroke. I’ve asked Martin to reconstruct her route, but I’m not surprised to say that he didn’t have any success.

Sasha managed to dig up historical documents about a chapel in that area though. I’m afraid we were denied the budged to send someone to Spain for a follow up investigation, so we’ve hit another dead end here.

What really concerns me though is that we’ve got yet another mention of the so called “Doctor”. He seems to have a tendency appear whenever people are in some sort of distress. Weather he causes it, or if he is simply drawn to it is yet undecided. Anyway, one thing these files have in common is that the Doctor barely ever operates alone. I can’t shake the feeling that there are some more answers hidden away somewhere in this archive. 

Recording ends.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading! English is not my first language so please let me know if I’ve made any mistakes.


End file.
